Quiz 4Check what you have learned from Lessons 7-8 with this 10 minute quiz.

Ôîíåòèêà
Lesson 3 - Óðîê 3

3.1.

Letters Ææ
Øø ×÷
Ùù Ãã Êê Õõ in syllables

Practice reading combinations of consonants Ææ
Øø and vowels.

Click each combination to listen, then click again and say it with me.

æà

æî

æó

æå

øà

øî

øó

øå

Practice reading combinations of consonants ×÷
Ùù and vowels.

Click each combination to listen, then click again and say it
with me.

÷à

÷î

÷ó

÷å

ùà

ùî

ùó

ùå

Practice reading combinations of consonants Ãã Êê Õõ and vowels.

Click each combination to listen, then click again and say it with me.

ãà

ãî

ãó

ãý

êà

êî

êó

êý

õà

õî

àõ

îõ

óõ

ýõ

Practice reading some Russian sentences.

Click each
sentence to listen, then click again and say it with me.

1. Ýòî
æóðíàë.

2. Ýòî
÷àøêà.

3. Âîò
ãðóøà.

4. Òóò ðó÷êà, à âîò êàðàíäàø.

3.2.

Stress and Vowel Reduction rules

In a word that has more than one syllable there will be one vowel which is pronounced more strongly than the others. This
is a stressed vowel. Since the stress on a word determines how
some of the vowels are pronounced, starting from this unit we mark
(underline)* it for the words you need to pronounce.

* In
textbooks and dictionaries the stress is marked with the stress
symbol which is put above a vowel letter like this:
. We have to avoid using this symbol because it is not always
properly reflected on computers.

Note that stress will not be marked if:

a word has only one syllable (for example: äîì, ñóï,
ñòîë, çîíò);

capitalized vowel is stressed (if you see the name Àííà,
you know to place the stress on the first syllable);

a word has the vowel ¸ which is always stressed (for example:
îí ïî¸ò - he sings).

Click the following words to listen and note how the stressed
vowel à is pronounced:

ëàìïà

áàíàí

êàðàíäàø

You can hear that the stressed à sounds like ain
father, whereas the unstressed (unaccented) à sounds
like a in above. This change in the sound of an unaccented vowel is called reduction. Reduced vowels are pronounced
more weakly. Listen to the words above again and note the difference in pronunciation of stressed and unstressed à.

Reduction is even more noticeable with the vowel letter î. In
the word êîñìîñ (outer space), for example, the first î is
pronounced clearly, whereas the second î is reduced to the
sound of a [uh] in above. The phonetic symbol
[] stands for the this sound in the phonetic transcription.

These changes are only reflected in the pronunciation of the
word. So we say
[êîñìñ]
but we spell êîñìîñ , we say [óõ]
but we spell óõî (ear).

Click the words below to listen and note
the difference in pronunciation of stressed and unstressed î.

êîñìîñ

óõî

So, the vowels î and à reduce
to short [à] or even shorter [
] ("uh") when not stressed. While reading, follow the
basic vowel reduction rules.

Vowel Reduction Rule 1

In the first syllable before the stress the letter î
sounds like à:

we spell

îêíî

Ìîñêâà

we say

[àêíî]

[ìàñêâà]

îêíî - window,
Ìîñêâà - Moscow

Vowel
Reduction Rule 2

Anywhere after the stress and more than one syllable before the stress:

we spell

êîñìîñ

ëàìïà

êàðàíäàø

ïðîôåññîð

õîðîøî

we say

[êîñìñ]

[ëàìï]

[êðàíäàø]

[ïðàôåññð]

[õðàøî]

õîðîøî - well,
good

The phonetic transcriptions, shown between square
brackets, are intended to remind you about vowel reduction and other aspects of Russian pronunciation which are not obvious from the
spelling.